The Book Lightwalker Files

In my recent push to fully blog about every episode in the original series, I find another time travel story that’s been neglected. The seemingly anachronistic story of “Tomorrow is Yesterday” pits two military forces against each other, though not overtly; and unlike the situations I discussed on January 16 this year, the displaced airman and the police sergeant are sent back.

It opens on jets scr...

It’s one thing that your average science fiction program misses the point of theology and goes off on its own merry way. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5). Eventually they’ll fall down a cliff or get stuck in a thicket when nobody is around to rescue them.

John 10:1-18 says loads about Jesus’ care for us, His sheep; and John 15:3-7 tel...

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Today I present my 200th post on Lightwalker’s View. Hard to believe, since I didn’t expect more than 60 posts before I ran out of ideas. Instead, the ideas kept coming, and still are coming, even as I still fight this infection. Since others have the same problem, they’ve begun to give us a 10-day regimen of Prilosec to clear up.

Our discussion today is about what peace means to most science ...

Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away …

Oops! Wrong opening.

But it was a long time ago, while I was entering my teenage years, I saw my very first science fiction show, ever. Or at least, it passed as sci-fi in those days. Dad bought us our first TV set in 1965—the old black-and-white cabinet style that took five minutes to turn on. The movie was titled Teenagers from Outer Space, and it featured an alien crew no more than 18 years ...

My friends, please pray for me. I have picked up pneumonia somewhere, with heavy coughing and difficulty sleeping. Pray for good health to continue after this disease is through.

On December 12, we covered the penal colony on Elba II, and the self-appointed god inmate, Captain Garth. Today we’re back with another tale of a penal colony on Tantalus V. Unlike “Whom Gods ...

I’ve been wanting to do original Star Trek’s “Whom Gods Destroy” for some time, and now finally I have my chance. In the same vein, I intend to talk about “Dagger of the Mind” on January 9. The delay is due to my blog-chain entry next week, plus I’m crossing the years with a two-part discussion of Holly Marten on Eureka.

In “Whom Gods Destroy,” the Enterprise flies to Elba II, a hostile world with a...

For the past couple of weeks (before the blog-chain entry last week, that is), we’ve been talking about mind powers in science fiction. I meant to cover both “The Empath” and “Spock’s Brain” in the same article, but I had too much to say about “The Empath.”

“Spock’s Brain” is an unusual show, starting with the fact it’s the only original Trek title with a major character’s name in it. It&#...

On both sides of the Cross, I’ve met people who are confused by mind powers, especially when they turn up in science fiction. Levitation, reading minds, and anticipating needs; Spock’s mind meld, Counselor Troi’s mental probing, and ESP.

However, in spite of the overwhelming belief that we use only 10% of our brain, there is no scientific justification for any of these. Why would God create an organ, and consign a tiny amount of it for its use? Not the Go...

Back on October 27, 2010, my Halloween blog covered a popular series on Syfy called Ghost Hunters. I drew a line between what real ghosts are and do, and what the investigators on the series believe. Of course, Trek dismisses anything spiritual coming from a nonmaterial source, so I won’t be saying much about that. In both “The Tholian Web” and “Wink of an Eye,” the phenomenon is some kind o...

Isn’t it strange how often the word “devil” pops up in sci-fi? Usually it’s a general term for a variety of other negative things.

1) In “Shore Leave,” Captain Kirk called his old tormentor Finnegan “my own personal devil.” 2) “The Doomsday Machine” had Commodore Decker claiming the conical weapon which had destroyed his starship was the devil. 3) Captain Pike in “The Menagerie” was sent to a “le...